Vascular Flora of Katjarra in the Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area. Report to the Birriliburu Native Title Claimants and Central Desert Native Title Services N. Gibson, M.A. Langley, S. van Leeuwen & K. Brown Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife December 2014 © Crown copyright reserved Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey Contents List of contributors 2 Abstract 3 1. Introduction 3 2. Methods 3 2.1 Site selection 3 2.2 Collection methods 6 2.3 Identifying the collections 6 2.4 Determining geographic extent 6 3. Results 13 3.1 Overview of collecting 13 3.2 Taxa newly recorded for Katjarra 13 3.3 Conservation listed taxa 13 3.4 Geographically restricted taxa 14 3.5 Un-named taxa 20 4. Discussion 22 Acknowledgements 23 References 24 Appendix 1. List of vascular flora occurring at Katjarra within the Birriliburu IPA. 25 List of contributors Name Institution Qualifications/area of Level/form of contribution expertise Neil Gibson Dept Parks & Wildlife Botany Principal author Stephen van Leeuwen Dept Parks & Wildlife Botany Principal author Margaret Langley Dept Parks & Wildlife Botany Principal author Kate Brown Dept Parks & Wildlife Botany Principal author / Photographer Ben Anderson University of Western Australia Botany Survey participant Jennifer Jackson Dept Parks & Wildlife Conservation Officer Survey participant Julie Futter Dept Parks & Wildlife EIA Co-ordinator Survey participant Robyn Camozzato Dept Parks & Wildlife Conservation Employee Survey participant Kirsty Quinlan Dept Parks & Wildlife Invertebrates Survey participant Neville Hague Dept Parks & Wildlife Regional Ops. Manager Survey participant Megan Muir Dept Parks & Wildlife Conservation Officer Survey participant All photos: K. Brown. Cover photo: View looking north from Katjarra. 2 Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey Abstract The three 2 week flora surveys of Katjarra (Carnarvon Range) within the Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area more than doubled the known vascular flora from 269 to 647 indigenous taxa, and added 9 hybrids and four new weed records. No taxa listed as threatened were encountered but the number of taxa on the WA Department Parks and Wildlife Priority Flora list increased from nine to 21. Collections of a number of Eremophila spp., Gunniopsis spp. and a Lawrencia sp. and a Mitrasacme sp. could not be matched to any collections in WA Herbarium and appear to represent new taxa. Eight taxa appear to be endemic to the Katjarra area. Thirty taxa are only known by phrase names and a further six taxa require further study to clarify their taxonomic status. Six taxa have been added to the WA Census and have been listed on the WA Priority Flora list. Major range extensions (> 200 km) were recorded for 15 taxa, with smaller range extensions (> 100 km) being recorded for a further 14 taxa. A surprisingly large number of taxa (43) reach range limits at Katjarra representing both wide ranging eremaean and tropical taxa, as well as a more restricted eremaean element. Arid species of a few largely south western genera also reach as far north as Katjarra. 1. Introduction The IUCN Category 6 Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) was declared on 23rd April 2013 over lands held by the Birriliburu native title holders. Within the Birriliburu IPA there are three IUCN Category 3 specially protected areas of which Katjarra is one (Dudley 2008). The Katjarra specially protected area is roughly rectangular, 50 km east-west and 40 km north-south, covers an area of some 1997.4 km2 and is located approximately 160 km NNW of Wiluna (Figure 1). The southern and south western section of Katjarra falls within the Gascoyne bioregion with its lateritic surface and alluvial plains dominated by mulga woodlands and shrublands while extensive spinifex dominated sand dunes and sandplains and the sparsely vegetated ranges of the remaining area fall within the Little Sandy Desert bioregion (Figure 1). The Katjarra area captures the central and southern portion of the extensive Carnarvon Range, in particular the sandstone massifs associated with Mt Methwin. Previous botanical collecting at Katjarra has been limited, with 466 collections of 269 taxa being lodged in the Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH). Of these collections 80% (372) were collected by D.J. Edinger and associates in 20 days spread over four years from 1998 to 2001. All of these collections were made in August or the first two days of September. The current survey was conducted at the invitation of the Birriliburu native title holders over three 2 week periods from the 6 – 17th August 2012; the 13 – 24th May 2013 and the 12 – 23rd May 2014 by the Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) Science Division and Regional Services staff. The area had come under the influence of a cyclonic system in early 2013 and average rains in 2014 allowing sampling of the grass flora that had previously been under sampled as collections had been concentrated in August and September. 2. Methods 2.1 Site selection In order to sample all major habitat types (Figures 2–8) collection effort was stratified by geology, geomorphology, and topography across the study area as far as 3 Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey practicable given location of access tracks. The survey used two base camps during each sampling period. In August 2012 these were located at Kanatukul West in the south and a mulga stand SW of Yamada in the north. In May 2013 and 2014 the same camp was used in the south while the northern camp was moved to beside the creek to the north of Yamada. Figure 1. Map showing Katjarra , the locations mentioned in the text and the route traversed by the botany team over the course of the survey. Major habitat types shown as overlay, see Figure 2 for key. 4 Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey The Gascoyne bioregion which occurs in the south and south west of the study area and is largely defined by the old erosional land surface (Figures 1 & 2). Five major habitats were sampled, mulga flats on sheet wash areas, breakaways and lateritic surfaces, rocky plains and alluvial creek lines (Figure 2). In addition a very unusual habitat of stony quartzite was found below a breakaway complex in the southeast near the abandoned Blue Hills homestead. This habitat had a number of endemic species restricted to it. Figure 2. Map of Katjarra showing the major habitat types, the location of the current survey sites (green) and previous herbarium collections (red) and bioregional boundaries (DSEWPC (2013). 5 Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey Within the Little Sandy Desert bioregion the extensive sandplains and dunefields, the rocky sandstone tops, the colluvial slopes and gorge and creek systems were all sampled (Figure 2). The salt lake vegetation of Lake Kerrylyn was sampled as was the associated gypsum dunes, these systems occurring within the northern dunefields. In the north west of Katjarra, an area of decomposing granites was also sampled. These granites were undersampled and the sandstone ranges of the Sunbeam Group (Hocking & Jones 1999) in the north east could not be sampled due to access constraints (Figure 2). Herbarium collections were made of the vascular flora with most effort directed to taxa not previously recorded from Katjarra. 2.2 Collection methods Collecting followed standard methods with flowering and fruiting material being pressed after each days collecting, brief description were compiled for all sites and locations determined by handheld GPS. At 120 sites unbounded relevés of roughly 0.25 ha were searched for all vascular plants, generally 30 – 45 minutes were spent sampling a site. In 2014 permanent 50 x 50m quadrats were established at 19 of these sites. Opportunistic collections were made at a further 130 sites targeting individual taxa. Where sufficient material was available efforts were made to collect duplicate material. At the completion of the surveys the plant presses were dried and frozen before processing. Nomenclature follows current usage at PERTH (Western Australian Herbarium 1998–). 2.3 Identifying the collections Collections were identified using a diverse range of taxonomic literature given the breadth of families collected during the survey. Identifications were confirmed were necessary using the reference and main collections in PERTH. The core resources used for identifications were the Flora of Australia series, the Flora of Central Australia (Jessop 1985) the Eremophila book (Chinnock 2007) and the electronic keys to the grasses (Sharp & Simon 2002), acacias (Maslin 2001), eucalypts (Slee et al. 2006), the peas (de Kok & Boffin 2007), Proteaceae (Hollister & Thiele 2011) and Goodeniaceae (Hollister 2011). 2.4 Determining geographic extent Once the collections had been identified the geographical range of the species was determined from distribution maps available on FloraBase and the Atlas of Living Australia websites. Taxa were classed as local endemics if all records were restricted to Katjarra and Little Sandy Desert endemics if all records were restricted to the Little Sandy Desert bioregion (DSEWPC 2013). Range extensions were measured from the closest collection to the centre of the Katjarra and classed into groups >100 km, >200 km, and >300 km. Species at the boundary of their distribution within Katjarra were noted from these maps. The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) mapping was particularly useful as it showed collections held in all major Australian herbaria, not just PERTH. 6 Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey Figure 3. Two of the most extensive habitat types covered in the survey were the sandplains and dunefields. a) The dunefields comprised red dunes to 5 m tall separated by inter-dune swales that could be 1 km wide; b) The sandplains and dunes largely surround the sandstone ranges of Katjarra; c) However, on the south side of the range south of Kanatukul, sandplains covered with extensive Triodia basedowii hummock grasslands are more common than dunefields. 7 Katjarra Vascular Flora Survey Figure 4. Other major habitat types are the sandstone ranges and their rocky side slopes.